Choose a good reputation over great riches, for being held in high esteem is better than having silver or gold. The rich and the poor have this in common: The LORD made them both. (Proverbs 22:1-2 NLT).

When the 1960s ended, San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district reverted to high rent, and many hippies moved down the coast to Santa Cruz. They had children and got married, too, though in no particular sequence. But they didn’t name their children Melissa or Brett. People in the mountains around Santa Cruz grew accustomed to their children playing Frisbee with little Time Warp or Spring Fever. And eventually Moonbeam, Earth, Love and Precious Promise all ended up in public school. That’s when the kindergarten teachers first met Fruit Stand. Every fall, according to tradition, parents bravely apply nametags to their children, kiss them good-bye and send them off to school on the bus. So it was for Fruit Stand. The teachers thought the boy’s name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it.

“Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?” they offered. And later, “Fruit Stand, how about a snack?” He accepted hesitantly. By the end of the day, his name didn’t seem much odder than Heather’s or Sun Ray’s. At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses. “Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?” He didn’t answer. That wasn’t strange. He hadn’t answered them all day. Lots of children are shy on the first day of school. It didn’t matter. The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children’s bus stops on the reverse side of their nametags. The teacher simply turned over the tag. There, neatly printed, was the word “Anthony.”

According to the 2003 BabyCenter, Jacob and Emily were the most popular baby names in the United States for the third year in a row. The “Baby Names List” compiled by BabyCenter L.L.C., the leading online resource for new and expectant parents had very few major upheavals in the rankings below the number-one spots. The use of classic feminine names like Emily, Abigail and Isabella increased significantly for girls, a move away from the TV-inspired names that have been popular since the mid-1990s, such as Alexis and Brianna. The boys' names list, which typically varies very little year to year, also saw unusual movement but in the opposite direction. Newcomers such as Aidan, Ryan and Zachary are edging out long time classic boys’ names such as Michael and Christopher.

So what? It only serves to remind us that a good “name,” or as the reading this morning indicates, a good reputation, is essential. There is only one way to maintain such a name. It is not what it is, but what it represents. Fruit Stand or not, if you stand for integrity and goodness, then you will have true riches. All the money in the world cannot buy those qualities.